Department of Surgery among nation’s best in research funding

K. Craig Kent

By just about any measure, the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison is excelling in research.

The department’s vision is to be a national leader in surgical innovation by performing cutting-edge research that makes a difference. K Craig Kent , professor and chair, highlighted many of the department’s accomplishments over the last year that supported that goal during the third annual Department of Surgery Research Retreat, which was held Jan. 11 at Epic in Verona.

Most notable was that the department ranks No. 12 among all academic surgery departments in the country in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The School of Medicine and Public Health’s Department of Surgery received $5.8 million in NIH funding in 2011. In 2008, the department ranked No. 22 and received $4.4 million in funding.

Kent noted that the 2011 figure doesn’t include all types of NIH funding, such as federal subcontracts, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and career development awards (also known as K awards), which increase the total amount of federal funding to more than $7 million.

"This is a success that I think we can all claim credit for and be very proud about," Kent said.

Other 2011 achievements Kent highlighted included:

• $2.7 million in nonfederal funding, compared to $1.8 million in 2008
• $1 million in internal funding, compared to $804,000 in 2007
• $1.1 million in clinical trials funding, compared with $720,000 in 2008
• $11 million in total extramural funding, compared to $7 million in 2008
• 181 total employees engaged in funded research, including 48 students, 39 faculty and 23 scientists
• 334 research publications authored by the department, compared to 251 in 2009
• 10 oral presentations and seven poster presentations at the 2011 School of Medicine and Public Health Medical Student Research Forum

"We may be 12th in the country in NIH funding, but we have a top-10 team. There’s no question about that," Kent said.

Kent’s talk was one of nine sessions at the conference, which was attended by more than 180 faculty, staff, residents and students. The keynote speeches were presented by:

• Douglas Wiegmann, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison, who spoke on "Principles of Human Factors Engineering and Their Application to Surgical Performance"
• Clifford Ko, professor of surgery and director of the UCLA Center for Surgical Outcomes and Quality at the David Geffen School of Medicine, who spoke on "The Science of Surgical Quality: Bench to Bedside to Policy"

The research summit also featured talks from Department of Surgery faculty on topics including cancer, global health partnerships, social media as a tool to increase organ donation and pediatric voice disorders.

More than 100 scientists involved in basic, clinical and translational research presented abstracts of their work, with an award given for best oral presentation and best poster. The winners were:

• Erin O’Conner, Layton F. Rikkers, MD, Best Oral Presentation Award, "Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Stage II Colon Cancer with Poor Prognostic Features"
• Scott Nelson, James H. Southard, PhD, Best Poster Presentation Award, "Induction of the Nrf2-Mediated Antioxidant Response in Primary Murine Hepatic Stellate Cells Protects Hepatocytes from Oxidative Stress"